Rossi, O’Ward & Grosjean involved in first Indy 500 crash of 2026
- Archie O’Reilly
- 2 hours ago
- 3 min read
The first crash of the 110th Running of the Indianapolis 500 came in Monday practice, with a spin in Turn 2 for Ed Carpenter Racing (ECR)’s Alexander Rossi collecting multiple cars.
The 2016 Indy 500 winner, who qualified second for this year’s race on Sunday, lost control of his No.20 machine at the apex before contacting the SAFER barrier with the left side of his car and lifting briefly airborne. Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward spun in an attempt to avoid the stricken car, colliding with Rossi before coming to a halt after hitting the inside wall.
Dale Coyne Racing’s Romain Grosjean was the third car involved, also spinning in avoidance and striking the wall. Both the Frenchman and O’Ward were promptly seen and released from the infield care centre at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Rossi, meanwhile, was still under evaluation but said to be “in good spirits” when media were ushered away due to incoming inclement weather around 45 minutes after the crash.
That remained the case for over an hour-and-a-half after the incident, at which point - at 15:00 track time - IndyCar medical director Dr. Julia Vaizer announced that Rossi was to be “transported to a local hospital for further evaluation” as a result of the impact.
“I saw Rossi spinning and it’s really tough to stop these cars, especially in the middle of a corner when you smash the brake,” O’Ward said of the incident. “It’s obviously very heavy rearward and didn’t really have a lot of stopping power [with] how we all run the brakes.
“At that point, it’s trying to kind of get away with it. But as soon as I pulled the car down - because I knew Rossi’s car was going to bounce off the wall [and] if not I probably would have T-boned him - that’s where the rear went for me and lost it.
“We’re going so fast and these cars are all on a knife’s edge. Well, at least mine is - and that’s how you’ve got to run it if you want to be competitive. When you want to run there in the middle of the pack, these risks can happen. And it was just wrong place, wrong time. I’m just glad everybody involved is okay.”
Neither O’Ward nor Rossi had changed from their qualifying to race engines, meaning no damage was sustained to the motors set to be used this coming Sunday. All full-time Chevrolet cars were due to make that move after the Monday practice session.
Reports have since emerged from FOX Sports that a backup chassis could be required for O’Ward ahead of Sunday’s race, for which he qualified sixth.
“Just feel for the guys that have got to rebuild a new car,” O’Ward said. “I’m sure they’re going to build me something [competitive]. I’ve had plenty of hits here. I’ll be able to get back in it just like nothing happened and I know my guys will be able to replace whatever it is that’s damaged to make sure that we’re right back where we worked with the cars from.
“There’s risks you need to take into account when you do this. Obviously this is one of them. Even before the race, you need to put your car in situations that you’re going to be racing in because otherwise you don’t get to work with whatever the race is going to throw at you.
“It’s a matter of sometimes not [something] you do but someone else has an issue and you’re just a passenger to the situation.”
Grosjean was further back in the pack when he spun, much like O’Ward, after hitting the brakes in an attempt to avoid the incident in front of him. He also contacted the outside SAFER barrier with the left side of his car.
In the immediate aftermath, he believed he would not have to go to a backup car.
“Most importantly, everyone is okay,” Grosjean said. “It happens. Rossi spun, Pato spun and trying to avoid them I also spun. I had to go down to the left to avoid the cars on the right-hand side and that was the highest point of Gs. I had to brake, slow down. And slowing down trying to go left, the car just spun.
“So not ideal. It is what it is. Wrong place, wrong time. We'll work on the car, hoping that Friday is a dry day so we get two hours to practice and make sure our car is as good as the one that we had here and go racing. S**t happens.”
The practice session was stopped for 21 minutes before being curtailed due to lightning in the area with 55 minutes still remaining. Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden was quickest in a session dominated by near-full-field pack running in preparation for next weekend.
